Friday Flash: From Russia with love

Time is scarce this week, so just a few tidbits I thought were interesting…

Zillow and Trulia both released data offerings this week. Trulia gives us rental market and environmental hazard maps; Zillow serves up “market snapshot” reports.

They’re both pretty cool. It’s starting to feel to me, however, that Trulia is pulling ahead of Zillow in an important area: design. These market data treatments, while in different formats for different purposes, reflect that. You see it elsewhere, too, as Joel has pointed out.

You can’t really diminish Zillow’s user experience – it’s great. But little brother is showing some soul.

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Wikipedia released a “Nearby” feature that’s pretty interesting. It shows you – and tells you about – the things around where you are.

While Facebook and Foursquare have similar functionality, I found Wikipedia’s combination of photos and deep descriptions more compelling than map pins and user reviews.

It’s worth playing around with if you’re thinking about how to seize the neighborhood opportunity.

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ForeclosureRadar is one of the best real estate applications of the past decade. This company has quietly delivered immense value to agents and investors, and built a fine business as a result.

And Sean O’Toole, the company’s founder, is about the sharpest real estate market mind out there.

This week, the company released PropertyRadar, a new product that goes beyond foreclosures to deliver an extremely robust property search. This isn’t a consumer play – it’s a pro tool. If you want to know darn near everything that’s happening with housing in your market, you’ll get it here.

The service is available only in California, for now.

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It’s easy to become cynical. I mean, just when you start believing in something, like, let’s say, true love, you find out that Kim and Kanye are living “separate lives”.

If you need to refresh your faith in humanity, watch this video.

People are good.

Enjoy the weekend.